AI SDR 2026 Statistics (Updated September)

How many sales teams use AI SDRs and AI agents

1. 1

   54% of sellers say they have used AI agents, and nearly 9 in 10 plan to by 2027, in Salesforce's 2026 State of Sales survey of more than 4,000 sales professionals.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[1]

2. 2

   87% of sales organizations use some form of AI for tasks like prospecting, forecasting, lead scoring or drafting emails, according to Salesforce's 2026 State of Sales.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[1]

3. 3

   55% of sales professionals use AI for prospecting, and another 38% plan to.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[1]

4. 4

   23% of respondents to McKinsey's 2025 State of AI survey say their organization is scaling an agentic AI system somewhere in the company, and another 39% are experimenting with agents.

   Source: McKinsey & Company, 2025 ^[2]

5. 5

   In any single business function, including marketing and sales, no more than 10% of McKinsey's 2025 respondents say their organization is scaling AI agents.

   Source: McKinsey & Company, 2025 ^[2]

6. 6

   The Bridge Group's 2025 SDR report was the first in its ten editions where AI SDRs appeared as a separate category, named by 1% of the 351 companies surveyed.

   Source: The Bridge Group, 2025 ^[3]

7. 7

   56% of B2B sales professionals use AI every day, according to LinkedIn's 2025 research on AI in sales.

   Source: LinkedIn, 2025 ^[4]

8. 8

   45% of sellers use AI at least once a week and 42% use it only a few times a year or not at all, in ZoomInfo's survey of more than 1,000 go-to-market professionals.

   Source: ZoomInfo, 2025 ^[5]

9. 9

   43% of sales professionals in HubSpot's 2024 State of AI survey said they use AI at work, against 74% of marketers.

   Source: HubSpot, 2024 ^[6]

10. 10

    47% of sales professionals use generative AI tools to write sales content or prospect outreach messages, according to HubSpot.

    Source: HubSpot, 2024 ^[6]

What sellers using AI agents report

1. 11

   94% of sales leaders with AI agents say the agents are essential for meeting business demands.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[7]

2. 12

   88% of sales reps who use AI agents say the technology increases their odds of hitting sales targets.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[7]

3. 13

   High-performing sales reps are 1.7 times as likely as underperformers to use prospecting agents, according to Salesforce.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[7]

4. 14

   92% of sellers with AI agents say the agents help their prospecting.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[1]

5. 15

   Sellers expect AI agents, once fully in place, to cut prospect research time by 34% and email drafting time by 36% (an expectation, not a measurement).

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[1]

6. 16

   48% of sales professionals say they lack the bandwidth for enough cold outreach, although they spend nearly a full workday each week on prospecting.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[1]

7. 17

   85% of sales reps with AI agents say AI frees them to focus on higher-value work.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[7]

8. 18

   36% of sales teams with AI agents use them for coaching.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[7]

9. 19

   38% of sellers who use AI to research leads and companies save more than 1.5 hours a week, according to LinkedIn.

   Source: LinkedIn, 2025 ^[4]

10. 20

    Sellers who improved their response rates with AI report an average lift of 28%, according to LinkedIn.

    Source: LinkedIn, 2025 ^[4]

11. 21

    69% of sellers who use AI say it cut their sales cycle by an average of one week.

    Source: LinkedIn, 2025 ^[4]

12. 22

    Sales professionals who use AI daily are twice as likely to exceed their targets, according to LinkedIn.

    Source: LinkedIn, 2025 ^[4]

13. 23

    98% of sales professionals say they make at least some edits to text written by AI.

    Source: HubSpot, 2024 ^[6]

What reply rates and results AI SDRs get

1. 24

   Krabat sent 58,662 first-touch cold emails and 24,382 follow-ups for 63 projects between August 11 and September 23, 2026.

   Source: Krabat · 2026-08-11 to 2026-09-23 · 63 projects · method

2. 25

   In a November 2024 SaaStr audience poll, 83% said they had gotten nothing from AI SDRs yet, 11% were building some pipeline with them, and 3% had generated real revenue.

   Source: SaaStr, 2024 ^[8]

3. 26

   Only 3% of the SaaStr audience said AI SDRs had generated real revenue for them in November 2024.

   Source: SaaStr, 2024 ^[8]

4. 27

   Artisan's CEO told TechCrunch in April 2025 that the sweet spot for its AI SDR's cold emails is about a 1% response rate.

   Source: TechCrunch, 2025 ^[9]

5. 28

   The average cold email reply rate on Instantly in 2025 was 3.43%; the top 10% of campaigns reached 10.7% or more.

   Source: Instantly, 2026 ^[10]

6. 29

   58% of cold email replies on Instantly came from the first email in a sequence and 42% from follow-ups.

   Source: Instantly, 2026 ^[10]

7. 30

   Salesforce says its own SDR agents contacted 130,000 leads and created 3,200 opportunities in four months.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[1]

8. 31

   AiSDR, an AI SDR vendor, reports in its 2026 industry report that most failed AI SDR rollouts collapse within 9 weeks.

   Source: AiSDR, 2026 ^[11]

9. 32

   In the same AiSDR report, none of the teams that churned from an AI SDR switched to another AI SDR.

   Source: AiSDR, 2026 ^[11]

10. 33

    AiSDR puts the median time from setup to first positive response at 22.7 days.

    Source: AiSDR, 2026 ^[11]

11. 34

    73% of B2B buyers actively avoid sellers who send irrelevant outreach, according to Salesforce.

    Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[7]

How big the AI SDR companies and market are

1. 35

   11x, a maker of AI sales reps, raised a $50 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz in September 2024 at a valuation of about $350 million, TechCrunch reported.

   Source: TechCrunch, 2024 ^[12]

2. 36

   11x's founder told TechCrunch in 2024 that the company was approaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue.

   Source: TechCrunch, 2024 ^[12]

3. 37

   A former 11x employee told TechCrunch the company might claim $14 million in annual recurring revenue when contracts that passed the three-month trial totaled only about $3 million.

   Source: TechCrunch, 2025 ^[13]

4. 38

   11x told TechCrunch in March 2025 that its retention rate was 79%.

   Source: TechCrunch, 2025 ^[13]

5. 39

   Artisan raised a $25 million Series A in April 2025 and said it had 250 customers and $5 million in annual recurring revenue.

   Source: TechCrunch, 2025 ^[9]

6. 40

   Artisan, the "stop hiring humans" AI SDR startup, employed 35 people and was hiring 22 more in April 2025.

   Source: TechCrunch, 2025 ^[9]

7. 41

   Grand View Research sized the global AI SDR market at $3.85 billion in 2024 and forecasts $32.23 billion by 2033, a 26.7% annual growth rate (a forecast).

   Source: Grand View Research, 2025 ^[14]

8. 42

   North America held 40.2% of AI SDR revenue in 2024, according to Grand View Research.

   Source: Grand View Research, 2025 ^[14]

9. 43

   Outbound AI SDR products held the largest share of AI SDR revenue by sales strategy in 2024, 49.4%, according to Grand View Research.

   Source: Grand View Research, 2025 ^[14]

What Gartner predicts for AI agents in sales

1. 44

   Gartner predicts that by 2028 AI agents will outnumber sellers by 10 to 1, yet fewer than 40% of sellers will say the agents improved their productivity (a prediction).

   Source: Gartner, 2026 ^[15]

2. 45

   60% of chief sales officers say their revenue number is largely driven by things outside their control, in a Gartner survey of 210 sales executives from January to February 2026.

   Source: Gartner, 2026 ^[15]

3. 46

   Gartner predicts that by 2028 sales leaders who overhaul data, automation and user experience will be five times as likely to get a return on AI as those choosing quick fixes (a prediction).

   Source: Gartner, 2026 ^[15]

4. 47

   Gartner predicts that by 2027, 95% of sellers' research workflows will begin with AI, up from less than 20% in 2024 (a prediction).

   Source: Gartner, 2026 ^[16]

5. 48

   Sales organizations that prioritize upskilling sellers on AI are 2.4 times as likely to achieve strong revenue growth, in a Gartner survey of 227 chief sales officers in August and September 2025.

   Source: Gartner, 2026 ^[16]

6. 49

   B2B sellers who partner effectively with AI are 3.7 times as likely to meet quota, according to a Gartner survey of 1,026 B2B sellers in early 2024.

   Source: Gartner, 2024 ^[17]

7. 50

   Sellers who feel overwhelmed are 45% less likely to attain quota, according to the same Gartner survey.

   Source: Gartner, 2024 ^[17]

What a human SDR costs and produces

1. 51

   60% of human SDRs were at quota in The Bridge Group's 2025 report, the lowest share in the study's history.

   Source: The Bridge Group, 2025 ^[3]

2. 52

   Median on-target earnings for a human SDR were $80,000 in The Bridge Group's 2025 report, unchanged since 2022.

   Source: The Bridge Group, 2025 ^[3]

3. 53

   A human SDR sourced a median $3.78 million in pipeline a year in The Bridge Group's 2025 report, up from $2.83 million in 2022.

   Source: The Bridge Group, 2025 ^[3]

4. 54

   New SDRs took an average of 3.0 months to ramp, the shortest time since 2010.

   Source: The Bridge Group, 2025 ^[3]

5. 55

   Median annual SDR attrition was 40% in 2024.

   Source: The Bridge Group, 2025 ^[3]

6. 56

   A human SDR logged a median of 112 activities a day in 2025: 44 calls, 41 emails, 19 LinkedIn touches and 8 texts or other.

   Source: The Bridge Group, 2025 ^[3]

7. 57

   Sales reps spend 60% of their time on tasks other than selling, according to Salesforce.

   Source: Salesforce, 2026 ^[7]

What controlled studies show

1. 58

   In a field experiment with more than 6,200 customers, undisclosed AI chatbots making outbound sales calls sold as well as proficient human workers and four times as well as inexperienced ones.

   Source: Marketing Science, 2019 ^[18]

2. 59

   Telling customers up front that the caller was a chatbot cut purchase rates by more than 79.7% in the same Marketing Science experiment.

   Source: Marketing Science, 2019 ^[18]

3. 60

   A generative AI assistant raised productivity by 14% on average among 5,179 customer support agents, and by 34% for novice and low-skilled workers.

   Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2023 ^[19]

Frequently asked questions

How many companies use AI SDRs?

Dedicated AI SDR tools are still rare. In The Bridge Group's 2025 survey of 351 B2B companies, 1% named AI SDRs as a category, the first year they appeared. Broader AI use is common: in Salesforce's 2026 State of Sales, 54% of sellers say they have used AI agents and 87% of sales organizations use some form of AI.

What reply rate does an AI SDR get?

Low single digits or less. Artisan's CEO told TechCrunch in 2025 that about 1% is the sweet spot for its AI SDR. Instantly's 2025 average across all cold email campaigns on its platform, most of them not AI-written, was 3.43%.

Do AI SDRs work?

Results are mixed. In a November 2024 SaaStr poll, 83% of respondents had gotten nothing from AI SDRs and 3% had generated real revenue. AiSDR says most failed rollouts collapse within 9 weeks. Salesforce reports that its own SDR agents created 3,200 opportunities from 130,000 leads in four months.

How much does a human SDR cost compared with an AI SDR?

The Bridge Group puts median on-target earnings for a human SDR at $80,000 a year in 2025, with 40% annual attrition and a 3.0-month ramp. AI SDR tools are priced per month, per contact or per email; see the Krabat AI SDR cost page for vendor prices.

Should an AI SDR say it is an AI?

The best evidence comes from a field experiment in Marketing Science with more than 6,200 customers. Undisclosed chatbot sales calls sold as well as proficient human workers, but disclosing the bot before the conversation cut purchase rates by more than 79.7%. Disclosing later in the conversation reduced the drop.

How big is the AI SDR market?

Grand View Research sized it at $3.85 billion in 2024 and forecasts $32.23 billion by 2033. Among the vendors, 11x said it was approaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue in 2024, and Artisan reported $5 million with 250 customers in April 2025.

Sources

1. [1]Salesforce. “State of Sales 2026 announcement”. 2026.↑1 ↑2 ↑3 ↑14 ↑15 ↑16 ↑30
2. [2]McKinsey & Company. 2025.↑4 ↑5
3. [3]The Bridge Group. 2025.↑6 ↑51 ↑52 ↑53 ↑54 ↑55 ↑56
4. [4]LinkedIn. 2025.↑7 ↑19 ↑20 ↑21 ↑22
5. [5]ZoomInfo. 2025.↑8
6. [6]HubSpot. “State of AI in sales”. 2024.↑9 ↑10 ↑23
7. [7]Salesforce. “Sales statistics 2026”. 2026.↑11 ↑12 ↑13 ↑17 ↑18 ↑34 ↑57
8. [8]SaaStr. 2024.↑25 ↑26
9. [9]TechCrunch. “Artisan raises $25M”. 2025.↑27 ↑39 ↑40
10. [10]Instantly. 2026.↑28 ↑29
11. [11]AiSDR. 2026.↑31 ↑32 ↑33
12. [12]TechCrunch. “11x raises $50M Series B”. 2024.↑35 ↑36
13. [13]TechCrunch. “11x claiming customers”. 2025.↑37 ↑38
14. [14]Grand View Research. 2025.↑41 ↑42 ↑43
15. [15]Gartner. “AI agents will outnumber sellers 10 to 1”. 2026.↑44 ↑45 ↑46
16. [16]Gartner. “AI-enabled next best actions”. 2026.↑47 ↑48
17. [17]Gartner. “Sellers who partner with AI”. 2024.↑49 ↑50
18. [18]Marketing Science. 2019.↑58 ↑59
19. [19]National Bureau of Economic Research. 2023.↑60

Method

We searched Google for AI SDR statistics, AI sales agent statistics and AI SDR adoption, read the pages that ranked, and counted how many of them repeat each number. Many of those pages attribute numbers to Gartner, Forrester or McKinsey reports we could not find, so we kept only numbers we could read on the producer's own page, checked on September 24, 2026. Gartner and McKinsey pages were read through web.archive.org copies. Vendor numbers (AiSDR, Salesforce's own SDR agents, Instantly) are the vendors' own figures, and funding and revenue figures come from TechCrunch reporting. Forecasts are marked as predictions. We found two peer-reviewed or working papers that measure AI in sales or support conversations; none measure AI SDR tools directly. Krabat numbers come from its production database: every email sent from the first send on August 11 to September 23, 2026, excluding projects owned by our own test accounts.

Krabat numbers new on this page:

• Krabat sent 58,662 first-touch cold emails and 24,382 follow-ups for 63 projects between August 11 and September 23, 2026. Count of sent messages in Krabat's production database by type; projects owned by our own test accounts excluded.

All 60 statistics as a CSV: ai-sdr-statistics.csv.

Cite this page

Krabat, “AI SDR 2026 Statistics (Updated September)”, updated September 2026, https://krabat.ai/research/ai-sdr-statistics

To cite one number, link its anchor: each statistic has one, for example https://krabat.ai/research/ai-sdr-statistics#stat-1.